User blog:Love Robin/Category Catacombs
I feel Villains Wiki categories need a massive revamping and reorganizing. I've already discussed a few of these thoughts with a couple Admins, and LucidPigeons asked me to put them down in one place. As I've yet to absorb the entirety of the Gordian Knot which are the categories here, I may use as examples categories which are not used here. Please discuss the principle of such examples, and not attack the examples themselves. Maybe not all of the following recommendation will be adopted here. Every wikia has its own needs and internal-logic for how it does things, but these certainly bear consideration and discussion. Title/Naming Many of the Cats have titles which are too wordy, which not only adds to a massive block of wall'o'text at the bottom of many articles, but makes remembering them harder for the occasional visitor and contributor to recall exactly. Was it "villains who…", or "villains that…", sort of thing. In my experience the less wordy and terser the Cat name, the better for all. For example, Category:Villains who are biologically related to the Hero is far too wordy and can be better serviced by "Related to Hero". You don't even need "biologically" as that is information which the article itself provides, and frankly, not many visitors will make the distinction when searching for characters they want. Villains and Evil This wikia is for VILLAINS and EVIL characters. No pages which are not about either should be here. Therefore these words could and should be dropped. Categories renamed. ::Admins, if you don't already know, there are Tools available which will Rename Categories. Don't even need to have Bot flag to use them, although, with the sheer number of renames I'm recommending, it is advisable to have. Therefore it is unnecessary to have Cats which are "Evil anything". For example, there are no "Good" clowns allowed on Villains Wiki, so to say Category:Evil Clowns is redundant. It only adds to the number of words among the mass at the bottom of pages. Same for "Villains". Again, every character here should qualify as a villain enough to be here. Therefore it is redundant to have the word in so many Cats. Category:Male Villains is the same as Category:Males with one less word. Dropping these TWO WORDS ALONE will immediately reduce the bottom page masses by 2/3s to nearly HALF. Factor in the number of words which can be trimmed from many other Cats, and the mass-reduction will be even greater. Default-level There are some categories which are just plain "default level". Common-sense level. For example Category:Living Villains, or "Alive". This is unnecessary because a character should be presumed living until told otherwise. Any character NOT tagged with Category:Deceased is of course "Living". Same for Category:Recurring villain. Hey, any character NOT tagged with Category:One-Shot Villains is of course "Recurring". Clear and easy language Categories are first and foremost TOOLS. Not just for a local community, but also for casual visitors. Especially in wikias which strive to be any form of "encyclopedic". Certain highly specific-niched wikias with highly closed and insular communities may not cater to casual traffic. So that may not be true of them, but it IS true for most others. Villains Wiki included. Keep in mind that not everyone may fully know terms used, especially if using TV Tropes Terms as we're NOT TVT. What the hells is Category:Benzinikinetic Villains? A Category:Knight of Cerebus? If the ONLY way the average user can know is to click on the category link to find out, then the name/title FAILS being useful. And may also be a tad TOO SPECIFIC and unnecessary. Remember the last time YOU used a category page on any wikia or Wikipedia to find a page you wanted. After all, most people already know what they are looking for and or are following a link from a search engine. So while a useful tool, categories are not the ultimate tool. Applying Far far faaaarrrr too many cats are being attached to characters which do not need to be. A category should define a character, not be tagged to them due to 1-to-a-couple non-defining instances. For example, if a character in an appearance puts on clown makeup or costume for any reason, especially for Halloween and Parties, they should not be tagged with Category:Clowns. That instance does not DEFINE them. So the Cat does not apply. In addition, do not use categories which another is already tagged with similar or which better covers it. For example we have Category:Died with Honor, Category:Died in Disgrace, and Category:Deceased. The first two are contradictory and so should never be used on the same character UNLESS there was a resurrection involved at some point. They also convey more information than "Deceased" and therefore should be used instead whenever applicable. :NOTE: At this time the first two categories have been merged into Deceased and deleted. This paragraph is left for the example even though specifically outdated. Same for Category:Movie Villains. If you're applying something more specific, such as Category:Action Movie Villains, you don't need both. When presented with one or more categories which are of so similar a type, use the ONE which provides the most information, and drop/leave off the other. Sub Categories Categories also need a restructuring especially in regards to sub-categories. Sub-Cats should be subsets of their parents. For example Category:Stranglers has Category:Telekinetics as a sub-Cat. I'm sure the reasoning is due to Darth Vader and other Force Initiates using the Force to do this act. However, it really should not be. Not all Telekinetics are Stranglers. Or vice versa. Not because this character can do This&That, so because they are in Cat-This, then Cat-That should be Sub to it. Instead, when viewing Categories attached to Categories, you NEED TO ASK "Is EVERYTHING in the attached Category ALSO IN this Category?" If "No", do not add it. For example, Category:Pedophiles. You may think it a good idea to add to it Category:Perverts and Category:Rapists. But you'd be WRONG. Why? Because NOT ALL Perverts are Pedophiles. NOT ALL Rapists are Pedophiles. So the answer to the qualifying question for these is "No", thus you do not add it. Mind you, the *reverse may be true*. In this example legally all Pedophiles are Perverts and Rapists. *The only exceptions would be Categories auto-added by Templates. For example . In addition to adding the Mature warning banner, it also automatically adds the page into Category:Mature. This is done more for Site Administrative purposes than actually making sub-cats. Substructure Sub Categories should make sense in their progression. For example a Category:Vehicles should have as sub-cats something like Aircraft, Watercraft, and Landcraft. Then under Landcraft Wheeled and Hover (or Wheelless), etc. Then under Wheeled, Automobile, then under that "Trucks", "Cars", and "Cycles", etc. See? Progression which makes sense. Something in a Sub-Cat usually should be applicable to every Cat-level above it. And in this example then, a jeep should ONLY be Tagged with "Cars" as every cat above should be understood as applying. We know a jeep is also a "Wheeled", "Landcraft", "Vehicle". We don't need ALL tagged to it. Of course, there will be times a page may fit more than one subcat at the same level. For example, the Back to the Future Delorean would also fit somewhere under "Aircraft" since it has undergone a conversion enabling it to fly. Possibly even "Railcar" since in the third movie that is all it was capable of being; long enough to Define it as such for 1/3rd its existence, not counting the animated series and related other media. :Another example: :*Category:Deceased Villains :**Category:Died with Honor :**Category:Died in Disgrace :**'Category:Resurrected or Resuscitated' :***'Died Multiple Times' Or in other words, pick the subcat(s) which best apply and leave off all above them. Making Subcats This is tricky, because it is NOT done the same way as tagging pages with categories. See, when you place a Category ON A PAGE, that page is placed *in* that Category. What is being said is "This page belongs with all the other pages which this category defines." However, when you place a Category ON A CATEGORY, you are NOT making a subcategory. At least not the way you THINK you WANT to. It is NOT as simple as adding a Cat to a Page. You are NOT making the Added-Category a subcategory to the Existing-Category. You are instead, doing just the opposite. How can you tell? Once you've "added a subcat", go ahead and check the Existing Cat for a section "This category includes the following subcategories", generally just under the pictures. Do you SEE the Cat you just added? No. Because that is not how you make subcategories. To make CategoryA a subcategory under CategoryB, you have to go to CatA and ADD CatB to it. Yeah, a little more involved than just tagging a Cat to a Page. Summary So to recap… #Keep category titles as simple and terse as possible ##Drop nearly every use of "Evil" and "Villains" as redundant ##Lose "Default-level" categories ##Category names should be clear and simple language. Casual visitors are probably not fully conversant with them. #Categories need to define a character, be an integral aspect of them and NOT because of every little instance they were seen "x". #Do not use redundant categories. Pick one, drop others. ##With similar categories, use the one which offer the most information ##When using a Subcategory, ignore/drop all the category levels above as also applying. ###More than one subcategory at the same level may apply. #Learn the proper way to make Subcategories. ##Not done by simply "placing a Category on a Category". ###Ask, "do ALL in the added/sub category ALSO apply to the existing/parent category?" If "NO" then don't add it. ###Double check the subcategory section to see if what you added appears. Finally, Adding Categories DO NOT REPLACE creating good and informative articles. They are not a crutch. A good article not only tells us a character is a Complete Monster or a "Knight of Cerebus", but tells us why they are.